Owens-Thomas House

Owens-Thomas House

The Owens-Thomas House is a national historic landmark in Savannah, a historic house built in 1819 turned museum in the late 20th century. This home, one of the finest examples of English Regency architecture in the United States, was designed by architect William Jay and family-owned. Today it is owned by Telfair Museums, a well-preserved and restored home that now makes an excellent educational source. After the house was family-owned it was turned into an elegant lodging-house, one in which Marquis de Lafayette made a locally famous 1825 address. In 1830 the lodging house was bought by the local congressman, lawyer, planter, and mayor George Welshman Owens, and it stayed within that family until 1951, when Owens granddaughter bequeathed it to Telfair.

Your group will have the chance to take a guided tour, departing every 15 minutes, which starts in the carriage house. The carriage-house holds one of the earliest intact urban slave quarters in the south, and next to it you will find the fine example of an English parterre garden, the well-kept original garden of the home. Inside your group will find a decorative arts collection with Owens family furnishings throughout, as well as many different American and European objects circa 1750-1830. See English Georgian and American Federal period furniture, early Savannah textiles, silver, exported Chinese porcelain, and various 18th and 19th-century art. Be sure to check out the famous cast-iron side veranda with elaborate acanthus scroll supports before you go, as well as the museum scroll full of interesting souvenirs and gifts, located in the original stables of the home.